Cormier Finds The Big Time

Point Guard Reaches Uconn With A Junior College Assist

November 09, 1992|By KEN DAVIS; Courant Staff Writer

Unlike most of the players on the University of Connecticut basketball team, Covington Cormier never dreamed about the big time.

Cormier never watched Big East Conference games on television and tried to find his place in the picture. Cormier never saw his name on top 100 recruiting lists, never filled a shoe box with letters from college coaches and never had to take his phone off the hook to stop the calls from pesky assistant coaches. He played well enough at Jennings High School in Louisiana to earn All-Districthonors, but the 6-foot-2 point guard was overlooked.

When his playing days at Jennings were over, Cormier never gave much thought to college, and the only uniform he considered wearing belonged to his country, not any basketball team.

"I was planning on going into the service," Cormier, 20, said after a recent UConn practice. "I wanted to go to school, but I didn't want to waste my mom's money, either. I didn't want her to be in debt from sending me to school when I should have been paying my own way.

"I was talking to the [military] recruiter and everything. But I never sat down and signed. He came to the house and talked. It was almost official. I'm just glad it didn't become official."

A junior college tryout changed the direction of Cormier's life. If coach Joe Mondragon of Clarendon Junior College in Texas hadn't gone to Louisiana on a recruiting trip, Cormier might have enlisted in the Air Force and his basketball career would have ended.

Instead, Cormier went on to achieve junior college All-America status from Basketball Times magazine at Clarendon last season (21.2 points, 5.9 assists and 2.1 steals), a performance that attracted attention from Arkansas and Memphis State, in addition to UConn. And now the Huskies are counting on a significant backcourt contribution from the junior lefthander who is nicknamed "Cupp."

"They were looking for a big man and they just wanted some area kids to go out and play so they had enough for teams," Cormier said of that tryout. "[Mondragon] really liked me. He said my defense

[won] him over. I wasn't trying to score, I was just having fun and laughing. That's how I think the game should be played. When he asked if I wanted to come to Texas, I said, `Yes sir. Yes sir.' " Cormier's enthusiasm was understandable. After averaging almost 25 points as a high school senior, Cormier thought he deserved a shot somewhere. The only thing that held him back was the absence of offers.

Jennings is near the Gulf Coast of Louisiana, a midway stop along I-10, between Lake Charles and Lafayette. Cormier's high school team wasn't good enough to draw many recruiters.

"It never was academics," Cormier, a computer science major, said when asked to pinpoint a reason. "I had good grades coming out of high school, and I had good grades in junior college. It never was the classwork. It was just that I was overlooked. I don't hold any grudges. It just happens.

"I'm just happy and fortunate that I'm here now. I've got an opportunity to show my skills."

UConn coach Jim Calhoun, who is giving Cormier that opportunity, said it is easy to understand how Cormier slipped by unnoticed two years ago.

"It was a different situation, but he's probably a little like [University of Hartford center] Vin Baker," Calhoun said. "Baker is a fine player, but he played in Old Saybrook, down on the shoreline. Cupp was down on the shoreline in Louisiana. Their women's team was undefeated and state champs. His team was just OK. And he was a little guy. He was truly overlooked."

Cormier signed with UConn in late April and came to Storrs in June. Instead of taking summer classes, Cormier found a full-time job as a bank teller and took the time to adjust to the change of scenery.

"There's a lot of trouble at home," Cormier said. "It's not a bad area [to live in], but it is starting to get bad. My mom said it would be better for me to get up here and get accustomed to the area."

The slower pace in Storrs has been an adjustment, he said, but he also said he enjoys his privacy. Cormier lives alone, rather than with a teammate.

Cormier does, however, have an engaging personality and is popular with his teammates.

"He has fit in real well," said guard Jeff Calhoun, a freshman redshirt. "He hasn't really become close to any one particular guy, though, because he sort of lives away from the rest of us."

"It isn't that I don't like roommates," Cormier said. "I just like to be alone a lot. I'm around the guys. But after I leave [Gampel Pavilion], I like to be by myself."

The situation on the practice floor is considerably more crowded. Cormier and sophomore Kevin Ollie will be competing for minutes at point guard. They aren't being asked to replace the scoring of guard Chris Smith, UConn's all-time leading scorer, who now plays for the Minnesota Timberwolves. But Calhoun wants the Huskies to push the ball on offense and press on defense. Those things begin at the point.

"You can't replace someone like Chris Smith overnight," Cormier said. "[The fans] want everyone to come out here and be scorers and be a 20-point man. It's going to be different, because that's not what I'm here for."

In Calhoun's seven seasons at UConn, forward Willie McCloud is

the only other junior college player that has been brought into the program. Last spring, Calhoun weighed the need for depth at guard, evaluated Cormier's character, and decided there was no risk.

One week into the preseason, Calhoun has no regrets.

"He has handled the competition well," Calhoun said. "That's not easy. He came here to a big-time program, and I think he's handled it well. He's probably as quick a guy as I remember having in a uniform. He's a different level of quickness. Put him and Kevin together and it gives us a tandem. A lot of teams won't have that. ... However it works out, we're pretty fortunate."